It’s time to change the narrative: Women in COVID-19, science, and academia

History has a habit of erasing women’s contribution to science — from NASA’s ‘hidden figures’ and the women who propelled men into space to the many female researchers whose work won Nobel prizes for their male supervisors. We cannot give recognition to female scientists and their contributions to the fight against COVID-19 without acknowledging the barriers they have overcome.

This year, the International Day of Women and Girls in Science will focus on female scientists at the forefront of the fight against COVID-19.

Barriers and challenges for women in science existed long before the pandemic but are now in the spotlight due to increasing social and professional inequities — especially in academia, vaccine research and development, and COVID-19 response decision-making.

Originally posted in Medical News Today

Written by Joannie Marlene Bewa, M.D., MPH, CPH and Roopa Dhatt, M.D., MPA